The Bo Pelini story at Nebraska is not only interesting, but a small snapshot into the life of big time coaches everywhere who game after game have to deal with both the media and their fan base thinking they’re smarter than the coach himself.

That Pelini made those remarks in 2011 shouldn’t really matter, although I believe you can do something “in the heat of the moment” one time that doesn’t truly reflect your overall opinion on a given situation.

My guess on Pelini is that the Nebraska faithful are just too overwhelming for him. Everywhere he goes — the barber shop, coffee house, driving range, etc. — the folks in Lincoln are grilling him about last week’s game, next Saturday’s opponent and when’s he gonna win a BCS title.

His F-bomb laden tirade which included some powerful direct shots at the fan base is likely to cause his demise at Nebraska. It might not happen now, but this is the beginning of the end for Bo Pelini as the ‘Huskers coach.

And, honestly, it probably should be the end. Not because Pelini deserves to be fired over those comments, because I don’t think he does. He needs to move on because the tenuous relationship between the coach and the paying customer has been fractured forever and no matter how he spins it locally, the words are there for everyone to hear, over and over and over. “F*** the fans. F*** ’em.”

So, Drew, why should this be the end for him, you ask?

Because the fans will never forgive him.

They’ll never forget.

They might say they’ll forget, but they won’t.

The supporters of Nebraska football will always look at Bo Pelini as the guy who said “F*** the fans”.

Coaches are great at “moving on”. They have a kid to recuit, a game to win, a conference championship to chase.

Fans…they can’t forget.

They carry along that card in their wallet that says, “We pay your salary” and will gladly wave it in your face given the opportunity and cause.

And, even if Pelini wins this year at Nebraska, it won’t be good enough next year or the year after if they start the season 2-5 and lose to some chump like Wyoming or Arizona State in their own stadium in the middle of September.

Bo Pelini has the proverbial scarlet letter on his Nebraska gear now.

He’s easy to spot around town. He’s the guy with the big “F” sewn on everything he wears.

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Let me say from the start that I have watched the Tiger Woods “ball moving” footage (it’s RIGHT HERE if you want to watch it yourself) about 100 times over the last five days.

Tiger’s ball moved.

You can call it whatever you want — “shifting” is a word I’ve heard used a lot — but his ball absolutely moves.

Did the movement of the ball in any way alter or improve his shot?

Not a chance.

Should he have been penalized for his ball moving in the fashion that it did?

Yes.

But, that’s not really the issue at hand right now. The story is this: “Should TV viewers and/or anyone with information AFTER THE FACT be allowed to call-in a rules violation on a professional golfer?”

I’m in the minority on this one, but the answer is “yes, they should”.

Now, I’ll readily admit that Tiger is at a disadvantage here because the cameras are on him far more than they’re on Doug LaBelle, Ken Duke or James Driscoll.

That’s what happens when you’re a bazillionaire and you’ve won more golf tournaments than anyone in the history of the game save for one guy.

None of that matters, though, when you move a twig from behind your ball and the ball shifts – even remotely – out of its original position.

With all due respect to Tiger, his ball didn’t “oscillate” last week like he said it did. Oscillating would have been an action that includes a movement in one direction and a movement back to the original location. It’s a fancy word for “wobbling”.

Tiger’s ball moved.

It might have moved “slightly” or “marginally” or “barely”, but it moved.

And that’s a penalty.

I think a lot of rules in golf are silly. For example, you can swing and miss at the ball on the 1st tee and you’re hitting your SECOND shot next. But, if you hit the ball 300 yards off the tee and it goes out of bounds by one inch, you return to the tee and play your THIRD shot next. That’s a dumb rule.

The issue, again, is whether or not someone should be allowed to call in a penalty if they observe one on TV.

And the answer, in golf, unfortunately, is yes…they should.

Some folks who don’t think straight will say, “Wait a minute, we all saw that Wes Welker didn’t catch that ball in Denver on opening night and we couldn’t call THAT in to NBC.”

That’s right, you couldn’t.

But, please don’t mix how screwy the NFL is with their limited replay function with a viewer at home calling in to the PGA Tour and saying “Tiger’s ball moved on #10 today”.

It’s not the PGA Tour’s fault the NFL can’t get their replay situation straightened out.

And it’s also not the PGA Tour’s fault that Tiger didn’t call the situation to the rules officials attention in the first place.

Tiger once again did himself a serious disservice. This is kind of the last straw for me. We are obviously not in his mind, but I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that he knew that ball moved. He was in the woods and thought no one else would really notice if it moved or oscillated so he just went about his round. Then there is the obvious video proof that comes out. All Tiger had to do was say he thought the ball oscillated, but after reviewing the tape, it does appear like it actually moved. Case closed. Instead, in his f’ed up entitled mind, he cannot be proven wrong and still lies in front of everyone saying he still thinks the ball did not move. We all know what his true ethics are based on previous history and this just goes to show that NOTHING has changed with him, even after the public disaster of a few years ago. He lied, faked, and groveled his way back to some sort of forgiveness, then once the focus shifted back to him winning golf tournaments, he is back to his old ways.

I respect his game and what he has done as part of golf’s history, but he will be nothing more than a liar and cheat in my book. I hope his bazillion dollars and record breaking golf achievements makes up for that in his own mind. Golfer = One of, if not the best, Person/Human being = no so much

Drew – What are your thoughts on him as a person at this point golf achievements aside? (DF: I don’t know anything about him as a person. Never met him. Never had a conversation with him.)